John Legend performed at the 2005 Grammys, has been nominated for Soul Train and NAACP Image awards, and has a platinum CD, Get Lifted.
If you'd asked people who the R&B singer was before the turn of the year, though, few would have had an answer.
"I've been out for a long time, that's the thing people don't know," said Mr. Legend, who will open a concert for Alicia Keys on Sunday at Bell Auditorium, 712 Telfair St.
The Springfield, Ohio, native, born John Stephens, began singing and taking classical and gospel piano lessons at age 4. A former church choir director, he has recorded with Lauryn Hill, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z, Britney Spears and his executive producer, Kanye West, whom he met while attending the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. Mr. West later signed Mr. Legend.
"I think we both knew within ourselves that we were making better music than other artists out there," he said.
Get Lifted, which debuted Dec. 28, has people buzzing. Mr. Legend said he was influenced by Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Mary J. Blige and would have released a CD earlier but labels were reluctant to sign him.
"They're smart people, but they're risk-averse; they follow rather than lead," he said. "They just decided I was worthy at the top of 2004."
His album of ballads and dance tracks fuses old soul, gospel and present-day R&B beats under lyrics about love, peace and happiness, in addition to quarrels, unfaithfulness and other issues that sometimes occur in relationships.
Although Mr. Legend admits he's no angel, not all the songs are autobiographical.
"Everyone thinks I must have this crazy love life to go through all this stuff! I base everything on reality, but I base it on other people's reality sometimes," he said. "Some of it is taken from stories of other people that I know, but some of it I've gone through, so it's not like a completely out-of-body experience."
Other material, which he calls "aspirational," has yet to happen.
"Some of my romantic songs are about how I envisioned things to be for myself rather than how they've always been. Like So High, for instance, is about how love is supposed to be. I haven't really experienced it like that, but it's kind of like how I imagined it should be," he said of the song about lovers walking on cloud nine and being close to God.
Mr. Legend is close to his three siblings. He said his success has a lot to do with his parents' having taken "a lot of interest in raising us properly - spiritually, intellectually and creatively." He wants people to know he's not making some big message with Get Lifted:
"They think I have this whole mission with this album. For me I'm just being myself; I don't have, like, a larger mission. I just wanted to make great music and make it real and make it true for me, and hope people enjoy it."
At 26, Mr. Legend credits being observant and grasping how life works with making the album. Despite its buzz, he doesn't think it necessarily means a general return to good R&B.
"People are still buying bad records, and they buy my record, so I don't know if the trend is mine is going to take over or bad records are going to take over, because there's audiences for both."
Reach C. Samantha McKevie at (706) 823-3552 or samantha.mckevie@augustachronicle.com.
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